NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intensive poll campaign for the UP Assembly elections, particularly the series of three roadshows in Varanasi, has been seen rather critically. Even talked of as a lowering of scale by a Prime Minister! But the Congress is not doing any different.
The grand old party has fielded its top guns in a desperate bid to woo back the Delhi voters for the coming municipal polls.
If former ministers P Chidambaram and Jyotiraditya Scindia were roped in to unveil a revamp plan for Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Monday, along with Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ajay Maken, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressed party workers at Ramlila grounds on Tuesday.
Carrying forward the momentum of the UP polls, Rahul on Tuesday gave an early start to his campaigning for the Delhi municipalities. This is perhaps the first time that the Congress high command was to be found wooing voters for a local body poll-a far cry from its halcyon days.
The technique and rhetoric were the same though, with Rahul bracketing both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as leaders full of ‘’false promises’’.
Since the political challenge from Modi and Kejriwal pervades all spheres, from the municipal to the national, Rahul has little option but to take to the turf on the minor leagues too and try to take them on wherever possible so as to remain a viable alternative.
His tirade against his two political opponents followed the familiar pitch--he called them ‘’individualistic leaders” and said, unlike them, the Congress gives ‘’voice to the people’’.
The hate crimes being faced by Indians in the US may have little relevance to those voting for the municipal elections, but it did set the tone for what one may expect in Parliament when it meets day after.